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NEWS RELEASE
Phone: (386) 226-6525 Embry-Riddle Space Physicist Katariina Nykyri Wins Prestigious NSF CAREER Award for Research on Giant Space Hurricanes
Dr. Nykyri, an assistant professor in the Physical Sciences Dept. at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus, will receive $483,699 over the next five years from the NSF award program that encourages the activities of teacher-scholars who are judged likely to become leaders in academic research and education. “Katariina is one of the brightest young stars in our Engineering Physics degree program and a role model to female physics students,” said Dr. Christina Frederick-Recascino, vice president of research at Embry-Riddle. “We’re proud to say that she’s the third professor at our Daytona Beach campus to receive the highly competitive NSF CAREER Award in the last four years. The NSF is clearly impressed by the research capabilities of our faculty, our students, and our state-of-the-art facilities.” As a faculty member in Embry-Riddle’s new Ph.D. in Engineering Physics program, which launches in August 2010, Dr. Nykyri will teach space plasma physics and develop a course on spacecraft data-analysis methods. She currently teaches advanced space physics and basic physics courses. The current belief is that 99 percent of the visible universe is made of plasma, a highly ionized gas containing nearly equal number numbers of electrons and positive ions that is found in interstellar space, in stellar atmospheres, and in manmade form inside fusion reactors. “Despite the abundance of space plasma, the vastness of our universe creates many challenges for physicists who want to study plasma behavior,” Dr. Nykyri said. “The best solution for now is to examine the data we collect here in our own planetary backyard, using the near-Earth region of space as a huge plasma laboratory where we can record multipoint measurements, learn about the basic plasma physics mechanisms, and develop computer models that can be tested against the collected data.” A continuous stream of plasma given off by the Sun, known as solar wind, bombards the Earth’s magnetosphere, a protective magnetic shield surrounding the Earth. Plasma flow from the Sun to the Earth produces a wide variety of complex interactions of interest to scientists like Dr. Nykyri, whose research focus is plasma heating and transport. Dr. Nykyri's research has shown that in some circumstances giant space hurricanes (technically known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities) – which can measure more than 14,000 miles across – can form next to our planet’s magnetic shield. These space hurricanes can break the magnetic shield through a process called magnetic reconnection, allowing solar wind to enter Earth’s magnetosphere. “Understanding the formation and physics of these space hurricanes is important and exciting because they can happen anywhere in the universe where the ratios of plasma parameters are appropriate,” said Dr. Nykyri. “For example, if the magnetic field strength is too strong compared to the strength of the plasma flow, space hurricanes can’t form. Fortunately we can study their properties with the help of instruments onboard spacecraft that can fly through them.” Although space hurricanes taking place at Earth’s magnetosphere are not considered a danger to humans, Dr. Nykyri’s recent numerical simulation results, presented at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in December 2008, suggest that space hurricanes may have contributed to the destruction of the atmosphere of Mars. During the next five years, Dr. Nykyri and her collaborators will study space hurricanes near Earth, Mars, and Venus in more detail by using spacecraft observations of these cosmic whirlpools compared with state-of-the-art numerical simulations. In addition, new insights into space plasma, especially studies of turbulence and plasma and energy transport from larger scales to smaller scales, may have implications for the development of the energy force known as fusion, which is defined as the merging of two light atomic nuclei into a heavier nucleus, resulting in a loss in the combined mass and an enormous release of energy. “Currently it’s very difficult to sustain controlled nuclear fusion in plasma chambers due to plasma transport and instabilities that can develop rapidly in these chambers. Scientists might be able to prevent these undesirable effects if plasma’s physical processes were better understood,” Dr. Nykyri said. Given the estimate that a single glass of “heavy water’’ could supply one person’s energy needs for an entire year, fusion could serve as one way to produce energy on a large scale to meet the ever-increasing global demand. Besides being plentiful, fusion also has potential as a safe and clean energy source, according to its proponents. Dr. Nykyri plans to use a substantial part of her NSF funding for student participation in her research project, including sponsoring a student enrolled in Embry-Riddle’s new Engineering Physics doctoral program and employing undergraduates. “A central objective of this research is to train the future generation of space plasma physicists,” she said. “This research plan is ideal for educating young people in spacecraft data-analysis methods, plasma physics theory, and simulation.” Dr. Nykyri holds a Ph.D. in Physics and an M.S. in Computational Physics, both from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and an M.Sci. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu. |
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